Geol/Geop 558

Mechanics of Earthquakes and Faulting

Instructors:

Gary Axen, gaxen@ees.nmt.edu, x5178

Susan Bilek, sbilek@ees.nmt.edu, x6510

Glenn Spinelli, spinelli@ees.nmt.edu, x6512

 

Time and Place: Mondays & Wednesdays, 10:00 am-10:50 am, MSEC 351

Required Text: The Mechanics of Earthquakes and Faulting, by Christopher Scholz

Schedule:

Dates

Topic

Reading

Proposal deadline

8/22

Intro to course; Organization; Proposal discussion

 

 

8/27 & 8/29

Basics of stress, strain, constitutive relations (GA)

- J. Byerlee, 1978, Friction of Rocks, Pageoph, 116, 615-626.


- Scholz sec. 1.1-1.2

 

9/3 & 9/5

Rocks as materials, crustal stress regimes (GA)

- Scholz sec. 2.1-2.2

 

9/10 & 9/12

Crustal strength models

(Group 1)

- Scholz, 3.1


- Townend and Zoback, 2000, How faults keep the crust strong, Geology, 28 (5), 399-402


- Sibson, 1994, An assessment of field evidence for Byerlee friction: Pageoph 142, 645-662


- Brace & Kohlstedt, 1980, Limits on lithospheric stress imposed by laboratory experiments, JGR, 85, 6248-6252

 

9/17 & 9/19

Rate-state friction, pore fluid effects on stability (GS)

- Scholz sec. 1.3, 2.3, 2.4, 3.4

 

9/24 & 9/26

Critical wedge theory

(Group 2)

- Davis et al., 1983.  Mechanics of fold-and-thrust belts and accretionary wedges, J. Geophys. Res., 88, 1153-1172.


- Saffer and Bekins, 2002, Hydrologic controls on the morphology and mechanics of accretionary wedges, Geology, 30 (3), 271-274.

 

10/01 & 10/3

Low Angle Normal Faults (GA)

- Axen and Selverstone, 1994, Stress state and fluid-pressure level along the Whipple detachment fault, California, Geology, 22, 835-838.

- Wernicke, 1995, Low-angle normal faults and seismicity: A review, J. Geophys. Res., 100, 20159-20174.

- Axen, 2007, Research focus: Significance of large-displacement, low-angle normal faults, Geology, 35, 287-288.

Topic selection

10/8 & 10/10

Earthquake mechanics & statistics (SB)

- Kanamori and Brodsky, 2004, The physics of earthquakes, Reports on Progress in Physics, 67, 1429-1496.

 

10/15 & 10/17

Fault rocks and gouge

(Amy)

- Di Toro et al., 2006, Natural and experimental evidence of melt lubrication of faults during earthquakes, Science, 311, 647-649.


- Cowan, 1999, Do faults preserve a record of seismic slip? A field geologists opinion, Journal of Structural Geology, 21, 995-1001.


- Wenk et al., 2000, Pseudotachylyte in the eastern Peninsular Ranges of California; Tectonophys., 321, 253-277


- Spray, 1992, A physical basis for the frictional melting of some rock-forming minerals; Tectonophys., 204, 205-221.

Outline & reference list

10/22 & 10/24

Earthquake dynamics, rupture models (SB)

- Kanamori and Brodsky, 2004, The physics of earthquakes, Reports on Progress in Physics, 67, 1429-1496.


- Scholz sec. 4.1, 4.2

 

10/29 & 10/31

Earthquake statistics;
Stress drop

(Hunter)

- Abercrombie, 1995, Earthquake source scaling relationships from -1 to 5 ML using seismograms recorded at 2.5 km depth, J. Geophys. Res., 100,  24015-24036.


- Ide and Beroza, 2001, Does apparent stress vary with earthquake size?, Geophys. Res. Lett. 28, 3349-3352.

 

11/5 & 11/7

Fault geometry and earthquakes

(Sandra)

- Stein, 1999, The role of stress transfer in earthquake occurrence, Nature, 402, 605-609.


- Wesnousky, 2006, Predicting the endpoints of earthquake ruptures, Nature 444, 358-360.


- Robinson et al., 2006, Earthquake rupture stalled by a subducting fracture zone, Science, 312, 1203-1205.

 

11/12 & 11/14

San Andreas fault overview; weak vs. strong faults (GS, SB, GA)

- Scholz, 2000, Evidence for a strong San Andreas Fault, Geol., 28 (2), 163-166.


- Townend and Zoback, 2004, Regional stress near the San Andreas fault in central and southern California, Geophys. Res. Letters, 31 (L15S11).


- Lachenbruch and McGarr; 1990, Stress and heat flow; in Wallace, The San Andreas fault system, CA: USGS Prof. Paper 1515; 261-277.


- Hardebeck and Michael, 2004, Stress orientations at intermediate angles to the San Andreas Fault, California, J. Geophys. Res. 109, doi: 10.1029/2004JB003239.

Submit draft for peer review

11/19 & 11/21

Strong vs. weak faults

(Troy)

- Rice, 1992, Fault stress states, pore pressure distributions, and the weakness of the San Andreas Fault, in Fault Mechanics and Transport Properties of Rocks, p. 475-503.


- Faulkner et al., 2006, Slip on weak faults by the rotation of regional stress in the fracture damage zone, Nature, 444, 922-925.

Return reviewed proposal to peer

11/26 & 11/28

Slow earthquakes;
Episodic tremor and slip

(Richard)

- Obara et al., 2004, Episodic slow slip events accompanied by non-volcanic tremors in southwest Japan subduction zone, Geophysical Research Letters, 31 (L23602).


- Shelly et al., 2006, Low-frequency earthquakes in Shikoku, Japan, and their relationship to episodic tremor and slip, Nature, 442, 188-191.


- Ide et al., 2007, A scaling law for slow earthquakes, Nature, 447, 76-79.

Final proposal

12/3 & 12/5

Proposal presentations (1-2 fig., 5 min. presentations)